Overviewing Gaming Motivation and Its Associated Psychological and Sociodemographic Variables: A PRISMA Systematic Review

Table 6

The table reports how many studies found positive and negative correlations for each motivation and also how many found that motivation to be a positive predictor of hours played per week.

Motivation	Positive correlation	Negative correlation	Positive predictors	Notes
Social motivation^65		—	()	Yee [26] obtained a positive correlation only in the female sample
Competition^13	()	—	—	Yee [26] obtained a positive correlation only in the male sample
Escapism^25	()	—	()	—
Achievement^1	()	—	()	—
Relationship^59	()	—	—	—
Customization^17	()	—	()	Hilgard et al. [34] found it to be the best predictor for people who played less
Advancement^3	()	—	—	—
Mechanics^46	()	—	—	—
Coping^15	()	—	()	—
Dissociation^20	()	—	—	—
Fantasy^28	()	—	—	—
Cognitive development^10	()	—	—	—
Violent reward^74	()	—	()	—
Recreation^57	()	—	—	—
Habit^32	()	—	()	—
Competence^12	()	—	()	—
Autonomy^7	()	—	()	—
Relatedness^58		—	()	—
Introjected regulation^40	()	—	—	—
Identified regulation^34	()	—	—	—
External regulation^27	()	—	—	—
Integrated regulation^36	()	—	—	—
Intrinsic motivation^38	()	—	—	—
Amotivation^5	()	(1)	—	—
Exploration^26	()	()	—	—
Challenge^9	()	—	()	—
Immersion^35	()	—	()	Yee [26] obtained a positive correlation only in the male sample
Moral motivations^47	()	—	—	—
Self-gratification^62	()	—	—	—
Alleviation of boredom^8	()	—	—	—
Psychological detachment^55	()	—	—	—
Agency^4	()	—	—	—
Performance^51	()	—	—	—
Engagement	()	—	()	—
Enhancement^23	—	()	—	—
Role playing^61	—	(n =1)	—	—
Story^70	—	—	(n =1)	—
Loss-aversion^43	—	—	(n =1)	Hilgard et al. [34] found it to be the best predictor for people who played less